Re: Package with optional priority depending on extra packages
Le Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:04:54AM -0700, Don Armstrong a écrit :
>
> Huh? There's no such problem if optional packages conflict. The
> primary point in the past of not depending on extra packages from
> optional packages was so that the CDs would be ordered, so that
> packages on CD #2 wouldn't depend on packages on CD #4. AFAIUI, the
> modern cd creation utilities already handle this correctly and pretty
> much ignore optional/extra priority.
Le Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 11:26:38AM -0700, Russ Allbery a écrit :
>
> Priority inversion, while a Policy violation, is not considered an RC
> bug. ftpmaster can fix this globally before the release if desired; the
> package priorities in their control files are only a hint.
Hi Don, Russ, and all,
Apparently this is a long standing issue:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=196367
Just a comment on section 2.5 of the Policy:
For optional, it says:
optional packages should not conflict with each other.
However, for extra, it says:
This contains all packages that conflict with others
with required, important, standard or optional.
This seems to contradict the fact that a "should" is used earlier when
considering conflicting optional pacakges. (Or maybe it is just a
cultural mistundertanding: in the French law, a statement at the present
tense is by default a "must".)
Wouldn't it be more simple to just decide that optional packages do not
conflict between each other ? There is at least one purpose: that one
can install all optional packages at the same time without having to
solve conflicts. There is also at least one drawback: if the conflicting
packages serve a similar purpose, it makes Debian express a preference
by having one optional and the others extra, which means potentially
difficult decisions.
Of course, an other possibility would be to suppress the extra priority
if nothing relies on it. As said above, using overrides this would not
make packages buggy.
Maybe the people using the 'extra' priority for some purpose could
briefly describe what they do?
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
http://charles.plessy.org
Wakō, Saitama, Japan
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